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Video Tutorial: Health and Fitness with Rebecca Coakley

Written by  Andrew Wild on Wednesday, 03 August 2011
Rebecca Coakley and Rosemary Rhodes, one of the LET physiotherapists, show you an exercise to help strengthen the back of the shoulders and the rotator cuff. This is important, because in the golf swing it's easy to set up with rounded shoulders and a tight chest. By working the back of the shoulders you can improve your posture and perform a better turn.




The first exercise that we're going to do is going to target the upper back, and the back of the shoulders - the rear deltoid area. Rebecca bends her elbows out to the sides, and then then lifts them up. To do this she's got her core tight, and tight glutes too to keep stable. That way we're working everything down here, while she strengthens her elbows. You can do this with small dumbbells, but you'll probably find that it's actually quite a difficult exercise, so if you have no weights with you you can actually do it without. 

Hold it at the top for two seconds - the other nice thing is just to slow it down a little bit, so you really feel it working through your back, and then relax down. The one thing to watch out for is that you maintain the T shape and 90 degrees here - a lot of people will want to come down like this, and that changes the exercise to use muscles that we don't want to use, down in the trunk here, instead of using the shoulder muscles here.

The next exercise is in the same position, but we're going to make it slightly harder to bring in the rotator cuff, and add an element of rotation. 

Rebecca's setting the shoulders first to get this muscle working in here, the rhomboids, and then she's adding the rotation afterwards. A two second hold at the top to really get the rotator cuff working, and then drop the arms down again. 

If you think about the position of the right arm at the top of the backswing, you can see that this is a very important movement for your golf swing. It'll add a lot of strength, and also it's going to stop the muscles through your lats here that can get too active in the golf swing from working. 

In this position, another nice exercise is one that we call the Y exercise. Make sure that your core and your glutes are tight, and then lift your arms up. Hold for two seconds at the top, and then come down again. When you do this exercise you should be feeling it here, through your lower trapezius area, and the back of your shoulders. You do not want to feel it through your neck. If you feel it in your neck, it could mean that you're too tight for this exercise, and you need to do some flexibility work first, before you start doing this.

The other nice thing is to have the thumbs leading up towards the ceiling, again to open the shoulders out and add some stretch through the front, and get more strength through the back here.

The last exercise we call the T, and this time Rebecca's going to go straight out to the side with her arms. What I'm really watching for here is to make sure that her arms don't drift down towards her sides, and that she keeps that nice 90 degree angle. If they come down to the sides the exercise will feel very easy, so if it's not feeling hard enough just check your alignment in a mirror, and make sure that your arm is far enough out to the side. 

Now Rebecca will probably be feeling quite tired with this, even though she's got no weights in her hands. So by all means try 10-15 repetitions or so first without weights, and if it's too easy then add a two second hold - if it's still too easy then you could add some weights. Even a small water bottle will probably be enough. 

These are some great exercises to help strengthen your shoulders, and improve your posture.
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Andrew Wild

Andrew Wild

Andrew manages all aspects of Sandford Springs including Food and Beverage, Golf, Finance and Memberships.

Andrew originally met the Chairman, Paul Gibbons, when he was an assistant Golf Pro at Reading Golf Club 28 years ago.

Interestingly, 15 years later Andrew was giving Paul a series of lessons, during which he mentioned there was a club in Hampshire which was up for sale. After going to visit the club, Mr Gibbons ended up buying Sandford Springs. 

Andrew joined the company a couple of years later and six years on, he became the General Manager at the club they had first discussed all that time ago.

Andrew has a deep passion for the game of golf, which aids his enthusiasm in all his endeavours at Sandford Springs. Aside from playing, he enjoys simply being around the golf club and takes a great interest in looking after his members.

He believes that the atmosphere at Sandford Springs is second to none and finds it such a pleasure to be involved with the club that, in his own words – "Sometimes it doesn't even feel like work".

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